CBB Focus – Featured Column – June 2011

The following is an excerpt from a featured column in CBB FOCUS. You can view an image of the original piece below.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Enter the Panda Ltd. is a collaboration between a British engineer and an Irish designer. Our concept for ETP was born in 2007 when a discussion about solving the challenges faced by small businesses in China led to the realization of natural crossovers between our two disparate industries.

The idea to combine our business and project management skills towards a common purpose came from an understanding that Western SME’s need trusted respresentation here in China at affordable prices.

This representation includes design and branding, research and development and quality management without clients having to shift focus away from their day-to-day and core business activities.

WHY CHINA?
Travelling to China to check an order or to manage product development is time-consuming, expensive, and, without local knowledge, often fruitless. In the UK, Ireland and Europe, development services are very costly, so having them managed overseas with easy access to other supportive services makes financial and logistical sense for the typical Western SME.

HIGHS AND LOWS
For us the highs are simple – the satisfaction of helping reaslise a client’s concept an dmanifesting it to a finished product they are entirely happy with. The lows are the pace at which SMEs are getting the support they truly need to grow and develop.

After all, the major influences in technology, social and lifestyle innovations of the recent past have stemmed from SMEs. They are an invaluable resource that should be nurtured and not underestimated.